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Bundjalung artist Digby Moran with Lismore Flood, one of the highlights of his ‘Growing up on the Island’ exhibition at Lismore Regional Gallery.

One of the region’s best known artists, Bundjalung man Digby Moran recently held a true blockbuster of an exhibition at Lismore Regional Gallery. The hangings featured a selection of mostly large works – many of them nearly two metres wide – inspired largely by his early life on Cabbage Tree Island in the Richmond River.

For such an important body system and one that, in evolutionary terms, has been around for so long, why is it that we know so little about the endocannabinoid system (ECS)? And, why do we so rarely utilise the potential benefits of agonists and antagonists of the ECS? The answers are complex but interference by (misinformed) politicians and the influence of societal cultural beliefs are likely culprits rather than lack of inquisitiveness/failure of scientists and medical researchers.

This article will provide an introduction to cannabinoids in general and to ECS specifically and will touch on our current understanding of cannabinoids in neurological disease. There will be no attempt to discuss the importance of ECS in other fields (e.g. metabolic medicine, psychiatry or oncology) nor to discuss medicolegal issues such as medical prescribing in Australia or cannabinoids and driving. Recreational use of cannabinoids is also outside scope of article.

Dr Peter Silberberg, a GP at Jullums Aboriginal Medical Service in Lismore and Chair of NCPHN’s Northern Clinical Council, has signed up to trial the Orion Shared Care tool to enhance communication between teams of health care professionals. And he recommends other GPs take a look at it.

The Orion Shared Care Tool is a collaboration between the Northern NSW Local Health District, North Coast Primary Health Network (NCPHN) and NSW Health’s eHealth. It is a shared care planning tool for patients with complex and chronic needs. It allows the GP and other team members to create and update a living care plan.

It lets care team members add other information about the patient and makes it easier to securely share information between care team members. The tool integrates with Medical Director and Best Practice for GPs. Other clinicians access it via a web portal.

Secure medical communication started in Australia in the mid-nineties with simple home spun solutions. Since then a number of companies have developed secure communication as a service to medical practitioners. Over the ensuing years some of the early providers have disappeared and there has been consolidation in the market.

The current providers’ systems are incompatible with each other, making it frustrating for end users who complain it is like being on Optus but not being able to call Telstra phones. While it is feasible to bridge data from one provider to another, it is never in an individual company’s interest to enable this.

The fear is losing customers to a rival or worse incurring the technology costs while the rival reaps the income. Discussions aimed at progressing a solution have been ongoing for years but the business problem has yet to be solved.